About the Moral Sense Test

 

Nothing captures human attention more than a moral dilemma. Whether we are soap opera fanatics or not, we can?t help sticking our noses in other people?s affairs, pronouncing our views on right and wrong, justified or not. For millennia, philosophers have speculated about how people make moral decisions, what decisions they make, and what decisions they ought to make. To this rich history of theory we hope to contribute some data -- with your help. Our aim is to use data from the MST, as well as other experiments, to characterize the nature of our moral psychology, how it evolved, and how it develops in our species, creating individuals with moral responsibilities. The MST has been designed for all humans who are curious about that puzzling little word “ought” — about the principles that make one action right and another wrong.

You have the opportunity to participate in the Moral Sense Test right now. The test is short, and your responses are completely confidential. For more information, read our our privacy statement.

This research is sponsored by the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory, which is part of the Psychology Department at Harvard University. Our website has copies of the published results from the MST, and also describes some of the other research conducted at CEL. You can contact the primary researchers on the MST. In addition, please report any difficulties with the website or the test.

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